Leaders in Cleantech

About our GuestDr. Pete Armstrong: Dr.Pete Armstrong is the CEO/CTO and co-founder of Mixergy, a smart hot water technology company reshaping how we heat and store energy. After completing his PhD on intelligent hot water systems at Oxford University with co-founder Ren Kang, Pete helped pioneer Mixergy’s technology that makes hot water smart and a connected energy asset. Today, Mixergy leads the shift to smart, connected hot water systems across social housing, new build and commercial developments, setting a new standard for the industry.About Mixergy:Mixergy transforms hot water from a passive utility into an intelligent, connected energy asset. By placing hot water at the heart of energy management, we help create smarter homes, more efficient buildings, and a more flexible grid.  This lowers bills, improves comfort, and enable greater use of renewables.Our patented technologies power an intelligent operating system built into next-generation hot water storage for new build, social housing and commercial buildings. This system gives users and providers greater control over energy use, enables seamless grid connectivity, and optimises performance, without compromising on comfort.Connect with Pete Armstrong and MixergyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-armstrong-45039136/ Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mixergy-ltd/about/ Website: https://www.mixergy.co.uk/ About the HostDavid HuntDavid Hunt is a cleantech thought leader, podcast host, and former executive search and solar EPC founder. As Non-Executive Chair and a long-time advisor to growth-stage and scaling businesses, he brings deep insight into leadership, energy transition, and the future of climate-focused industries. David supports businesse as a NED and Advisor via Stoa Advisory, and through his podcast and writing, David explores the people, ideas, and innovations shaping a more sustainable world. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/ About the PodcastLeaders in Cleantech explores the people, ideas, and decisions shaping the energy transition. Through in-depth conversations with founders, CEOs, investors, and industry leaders, the podcast focuses on leadership, scaling companies, and the realities of building in a complex and rapidly evolving sector.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-cleantech-podcast/ Website: https://leadersincleantech.com/ 🎧 Sponsored by Hyperion SearchHyperion Search is a specialist executive search firm focused on the cleantech sector.The firm partners with startups, scaleups, investors, and corporates to build leadership teams and boards across clean energy, mobility, and infrastructure.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd Website: www.hyperionsearch.com Feedback & CommunityI’m always keen to hear feedback, guest suggestions, or topics you’d like explored in future episodes.If you enjoy the podcast, please consider subscribing or leaving a review — it helps the show reach more people across the cleantech community.

Philipp Man – terralayrIn this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I’m joined by Philipp Man, co-founder and CEO of terralayr, a company building a new kind of energy infrastructure platform focused on flexibility and battery storage. Philipp shares his journey from commodities and entrepreneurship into the energy sector, and the insight that led to terralayr: the growing flexibility gap in power systems as renewable generation scales.As he puts it:“We wanted to build something akin to the AWS for power.”terralayr combines battery asset development with a software platform that virtualises and commercialises storage capacity, enabling customers to access flexibility without owning and operating assets themselves. The conversation explores how this model sits at the intersection of infrastructure and technology — and why that distinction may become less relevant as energy systems evolve.We also discuss the state of the European storage market. Despite the growing focus on batteries, Philipp is clear that we are still early:“We’re really just at the beginning… you need to grow over 10x in the next four years.”From there, we move into some of the real-world constraints holding the sector back — particularly grid access and bureaucracy, and what needs to change to accelerate deployment.The discussion also touches on broader themes shaping the energy transition, including:The role of battery storage in enabling renewable integrationWhy flexibility is becoming a critical part of the energy systemThe shift from asset ownership to access and platform modelsThe impact of geopolitics and energy security on policy directionThe need to reframe the transition around energy sovereignty and abundanceOn the talent side, Philipp shares a disciplined approach to building teams, with a strong emphasis on hiring quality over speed and creating a culture where high performers set the standard:“The most important thing you can control is who comes through the door.”He also reflects on the realities of building a company in this space, from landmark commercial deals and fundraising milestones to the operational challenges that come with scaling infrastructure.Finally, we discuss leadership, resilience, and the importance of mindset, seeing challenges not as problems, but as opportunities to build capability and long-term advantage.Philipp Man:Philipp Man is co-founder and CEO of terralayr, an energy flexibility company founded in late 2022. Prior to terralayr, Philipp founded and ran CHRONEXT, a leading online marketplace for luxury watches, which he sold in early 2023 to focus on terralayr. Philipp started his career at Glencore in the middle distillates division and within BCG’s Energy Practice. Born in Cologne, he studied in the UK at King's College and the University of Cambridge and lives in Switzerland.About terralayr: terralayr provides energy flexibility services on demand. terralayr is a fully integrated energy flexibility provider, aggregating its own and third-party battery storage assets through a cloud-like aggregation platform. Customers such as power producers, traders, grid operators, and energy-intensive businesses gain access to flexibility without having to own or operate assets themselves. Asset owners tap into top-tier flexibility off-takers, can optimise their revenue mix between merchant and contracted revenues, and benefit from a streamlined asset infrastructure setup. terralayr develops and operates its own battery storage portfolio, with multiple assets currently live in Germany, several more under construction, and a multi-GW pipeline in development.Social links:  Philipp Manon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philippman/ ter

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I’m joined by Adrien Pinsard, CEO of Telis Energy, a Carlyle-backed renewable energy platform targeting a 10GW development pipeline across Europe by 2030.Adrien reflects on nearly two decades in the renewables sector, moving from private equity investor to platform builder and entrepreneur. Before launching Telis in 2022, Adrien spent 14 years investing in renewable projects at Platina Energy Partners and later served as Interim CEO of Macquarie’s 11GW European solar developer, Cero Generation.We discuss the thinking behind Telis’ decentralised development model, with dedicated local teams operating across the UK, France, Germany and Italy, and how that structure helps navigate the realities of developing infrastructure in different markets. As Adrien explains:“To be a successful developer, you need a very strong local presence. You have to understand communities and the local market.”The conversation also explores how the European renewables landscape is evolving. Adrien highlights two key shifts in recent years: the growing saturation of solar in some markets, and the rapidly increasing role of battery storage, driven by falling costs and rising power market volatility.We also discuss broader themes shaping the next phase of the energy transition, including:The changing economics of renewable developmentWhy batteries and hybrid energy hubs are becoming central to projectsHow grid constraints are shaping development strategyThe importance of capital discipline in a tougher investment environmentThe impact of geopolitical volatility on energy security and renewable deploymentLooking ahead, Adrien sees renewables playing an increasingly important role in Europe’s energy resilience:“Renewables are very well placed to provide energy security. Once the assets are in the ground, they’re homegrown.”Finally, Adrien reflects on the entrepreneurial journey of building a platform from scratch, and the importance of trust and culture when building teams across multiple markets.Adrien Pinsard:Adrien Pinsard has a 17-year track record of renewable energy investment and development.Prior to founding Telis, Adrien was Interim CEO of the Macquarie Group 11GW European solar energy developer, Cero Generation. Adrien spent 14 years at Platina Energy Partners, led the energy team as a partner and deployed €1bn in renewables About Telis: Telis seeks to play a significant role in the European energy transition targeting a 10GW renewable energy pipeline by 2030 delivered through subsidiaries across Europe’s key markets. Backed by The Carlyle Group, Telis couples the scale and synergy of an international platform with an emphasis on local knowledge and networks, sector expertise and an entrepreneurial mindset to capture emerging opportunities across the green energy segments.Social links:  Adrien Pinsardon LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrien-pinsard-5b77471a/ Telis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/telis-energy1/ Telis website: https://telisenergy.com/ Episode Links: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership - Patrick M. Lencioni https://amzn.eu/d/0dyAuxb9 About Hyperion Search:At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business grow

In this episode I’m Joined by Mike Nakrani, CEO of VEV. Mike is an OG in the electrification of transport, and that’s ignoring the milk float joyride! We talk about the challenges, opportunities and many converging technologies and factors that impact fleet electrification.There are of course many examples now that light and heavy-duty electric fleets are here and scaling. Grid connections aside, the biggest challenges is to demonstrate and achieve better TCO and true commercial viability. As Mike said during our conversation,  “Electrification only works when it works commercially.”.  We also talk about how having worked in behemoths like Ford and BP have been a positive rather than a negative as he leads a nimble start-up, taking the good and the bad, and how he sees and leads innovation at speed.We talked through:The new economics of fleet electrificationWhat genuinely drives ROIWhy scaling is very different from running a pilotFinancing models and infrastructure ownershipThe role of software and optimisationAnd what kind of leadership this next phase requiresIt’s a thoughtful conversation about what it really takes to move from ambition to operational reality, from pilots to scale.I hope you enjoy it.Mike Nakrani:With more than two decades of experience spanning automotive OEMs, mobility services and energy transition, Mike Nakrani is steering VEV’s mission to support commercial fleets in moving to electric power.  He stands at the intersection of automotive, mobility services and the energy transition – three sectors converging rapidly. Through his role at VEV, he represents how commercial fleet electrification must be executed at scale: not just with EVs, but with systems, infrastructure and business models that work. His leadership offers insight into how fleets can drive real-world decarbonisation.Nakrani promotes a pragmatic, ‘technology-neutral’ view of fleet decarbonisation – emphasising the transitional role that fuels such as HVO have to play, while reinforcing the scale and operational efficiency electrification delivers in the long term, delivering the most compelling business case for organisations needing to decarbonise.About VEV: VEV helps organisations deliver on their carbon reduction ambitions with an end-to-end fleet electrification solution that integrates across vehicles, charging infrastructure and power. VEV is owned by Vitol, a world leader in energy, which to date has committed circa $2 billion to sustainable energy initiatives worldwide.  VEV navigates the complexities of EV transformation to design and implement cost-effective EV fleets optimised for specific fleet requirements. It supports EV fleet operations to guarantee resilience and keep mission-critical fleets running at scale. Bespoke, scalable business solutions are designed around the customer’s own fleet data analysed by a powerful assessment tool, VEV-IQ, and VEV’s experts in energy and sustainable e-mobility. VEV sets businesses up for success in an electrified future. Social links:  Mike Nakrani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-nakrani-28400012/ VEV on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vev-services/ VEV website: https://www.vev.com/ Episode Links: From Good to Great- Jim Collins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great Benjamin Graham- The intelligent investor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor About Hyperion Search:At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership

In this episode, I’m joined by Johannes Kirnberger, co-founder and Managing Director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German company building Europe’s next-generation charging and battery infrastructure for electric freight. Johannes shares his journey from advising global institutions like the OECD and World Bank to co-founding a startup that's tackling one of Europe’s most complex infrastructure challenges—how to electrify heavy-duty transport at scale.Johannes Kirnberger is the co-founder and managing director of Delta Charge, a Swedish-German energy company pioneering integrated charging and battery storage solutions for European industry and electric fleet. He previously advised the OECD, the World Bank and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on energy, digital, and climate policy. Johannes serves as a guest lecturer at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from ESCP Business School, a Master of International Public Management from Sciences Po, and a Master in International Affairs, Energy and Environment from Columbia University.About Delta Charge: Headquartered in Munich, Delta Charge is a Swedish-German energy infrastructure company pioneering end-to-end charging and battery storage solutions for Europe’s freight sector. The company develops and finances a pan-European network of truck-charging depots and battery-enabled industrial hubs. Its platform combines intelligent software, grid-connected batteries, and fixed-price charging services to help fleet operators electrify their operations while supporting a more flexible and resilient power grid. Backed by Delta Capacity, one of Scandinavia’s leading battery energy storage developers, the company aims to deploy over €300 million in infrastructure and deliver 1.8 TWh of clean energy annually by 2030, anchoring the backbone of Europe’s zero-carbon freight future.Social links:  Johannes Kirnberger LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johanneskirnberger/ Delta Charge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/deltacharge/ Delta Charge website: https://www.deltacharge.com/ Episode Links: Book Recommends:Termination Shock- Neil Stephenson - https://amzn.eu/d/1XmpfDC About Hyperion Search:At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.

In this episode, David Hunt discusses the key insights from the Hyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review, highlighting the significant shifts in the cleantech sector during 2025. The conversation covers the maturation of the industry, the focus on execution over exuberance, and the evolving demands for leadership and talent across various sectors, including energy storage, EVs, and renewables. The episode also touches on the challenges faced by hard tech and the implications for the future as the market prepares for 2026. Takeaways2025 was a year of maturity in cleantech.The focus has shifted from technology to execution.Nearly 50% fewer companies reached seed to Series A rounds.Talent demand is focused on operational discipline and execution.AI-driven optimization is becoming crucial in mobility.Solar has overtaken coal as the EU's largest electricity source.The pilot to readiness gap in hard tech is widening.Boards need to be operator-led for effective scaling.Talent markets are becoming more selective with higher expectations.The next phase of the transition is about delivery, not invention.Navigating the Cleantech Landscape: Insights from Hyperion2025: The Year Cleantech MaturesSound Bites"The pilot to readiness gap is widening.""Boards need operators, not just advisors.""AI becomes invisible infrastructure."Chapters00:00Introduction to the Hyperion Q4 Review01:212025: A Year of Maturity in Cleantech03:20Energy Storage and Grid Market Insights05:09EV and Future Mobility Developments07:01Renewables: Milestones and Talent Trends08:35Challenges in Hard Tech and Funding09:55Looking Ahead: Key Themes for 2026 LinksHyperion Q4 Market and Talent Review - https://hyperionsearch.com/market-reviews/Net Zero Insights -State of Cleantech 2025 - https://stateofclimatetech.com/

Devrim Celal, Chief Flexibility & Marketing Officer at Kraken, previously led Upside Energy and now steers one of the top energy tech platforms. He shares his transformative journey from hands-on founder to strategic leader, emphasizing the importance of adapting company culture during rapid growth. Devrim highlights the role of flexibility in energy management, AI's impact on data centres, and innovative long-duration storage solutions. He draws parallels between ultrarunning and leadership, illustrating the need for both short- and long-term vision in the energy transition.

In this episode of Leaders in Cleantech, I speak with Juergen Mayerhofer, CEO and co-founder of enspired, the Vienna-based company using fully automated, AI-driven trading to optimise flexible power assets – especially grid-scale batteries – across multiple European markets.Juergen shares how he stumbled into energy via Austrian gas market liberalisation, fell in love with physical energy systems, and eventually founded enspired in early 2020 with the simple but powerful idea that flexibility is the key resource for integrating more renewables. We talk about how the company has scaled from its first pump storage and thermal assets in Germany to managing ~5 GW of flexibility (including over 1.3 GW of batteries), now active across ten markets and expanding into new geographies.We dig into why enspired thinks like a software and R&D company rather than a classic trading house, how they use automation, machine learning and reinforcement learning in practice, and why they’ve chosen to publish independently verified revenue performance instead of leaning on AI buzzwords. Juergen also reflects on the realities of founding just before COVID, expanding rapidly across borders, and building a diverse, high-performance culture designed to move into new countries in weeks, not years.About Juergen Mayerhofer:enspired CEO and co-founder Juergen Mayerhofer holds an MBA in energy management and has worked in the energy sector for over 20 years, contributing to the expansion of renewables in the grid in various expert positions. Under his bold and devoted leadership, enspired evolved from a small-scale startup with a workforce in the single digits into a successful institution with global recognition. As an enthusiast and first mover in BESS optimization, Juergen is a highly respected and trusted figure in his field as well as the power industry at large.About enspired:Vienna-based innovator enspired is known for pioneering automated energy trading and cross-market battery storage optimization across Europe with an advanced technical infrastructure running on billions of data points, AI, machine learning, and reinforcement learning. The self-developed optimization platform is operated 100% in-house, which makes it highly flexible in adapting to new markets and changing market conditions. By optimizing the power assets of their customers across all available energy markets, enspired unlocks essential flexibility to integrate more renewables while providing grid stability, enspired's commercial strategy achieves maximum revenues with minimum degradation, extending asset life and profit over time. As the first and only BESS optimizer with published portfolio performance, enspired is tackling the lack of monetary transparency in the industry by granting insight into real, independently confirmed revenues. In 2024 alone, enspired enabled 2.5 million tons of emission savings and aims to integrate 50 GW of flexibility by 2035 to achieve the ultimate goal of accelerating the energy transition. Social links:  Juergen Mayerhofer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juergenmayerhofer/ enspired on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enspired/ enspired website: https://www.enspired-trading.com/ About Hyperion Search:At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd Website: www.hyperionsearch.com Follow us online, write a review (please) or

In this episode I’m joined by Gregory Dewerpe, Founder of NOA  (formerly A/O), to cut through the noise on climate investing. We talk about the shift from abundance to discipline, why Europe and the US are now playing different games, and how AI will matter in the physical world—grids, buildings, materials—rather than the hype layer. Candid, practical, and economics-first: adoption wins when solutions are cheaper, smarter, and scale.What we coverWhy A/O became NOA: moving from “proptech” to a broader physical world mandate; why naming and focus matter for specialist funds; being memorable and thesis-true.Specialist > generalist: generating alpha by doing the less obvious in crowded markets; why NOA prefers hard tech and infrastructure over “consensus safe” deals.How NOA deploys: flexible first cheques ($2–15m), stage-agnostic from seed to B; focusing on capital actually at work by Series B rather than chasing ownership optics.Some of Greg’s quotes “We won’t generate alpha by doing what everyone else does. Being a specialist lets us have a qualified, differentiated opinion.”“The built world doesn’t need to be greener — it needs to be smarter. Make it smarter and it will be greener.”“We shouldn’t build climate on altruism. Adoption happens when solutions are cheaper and more efficient.”About Gregory DewerpeGregory Dewerpe is the Founder and Managing Partner of noa, Europe’s largest built world venture capital firm. He oversees the firm’s vision and strategy, manages partnerships with portfolio companies and LPs, and is a recognised voice in tech and climate—particularly around decarbonisation and the energy transition in real estate.He founded noa (formerly A/O) after more than a decade of deep investment in the real estate sector, identifying it as a key vector for climate innovation. This insight stemmed from his previous work founding AMD Capital, a specialist real estate investment and advisory firm.Earlier in his career, Gregory worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse and Citigroup, where he structured over $30bn in new investments. He holds an MSc in Business & Finance from HEC Lausanne and has attended executive education programmes at LSE and Harvard Business School. About Noa: noa is Europe’s largest built world VC firm and a global sustainability tech leader, focused on transforming real estate and construction—the world’s most polluting and least digitised industry.noa backs breakthrough innovations across the full lifecycle of the built world—from raw materials and design to energy, operations, and urban transformation. Its mission is to improve quality of life, accelerate decarbonisation and climate resiliency, and drive automation and sustainable living.The firm invests across software, hardware, deep tech, AI, and new materials, including overlaps with fintech and insurtech.Social links:  Gregory Dewerpe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorydewerpe/ Noa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/noavc/ Noa website: https://www.noavc.com/ 

About Liliane Ableitner:Liliane is the co-founder and CEO of the climate tech startup exnaton. In 2019, she graduated with a PhD in information systems from one of Europe’s most renowned universities ETH Zurich. In 2020, she co-founded a startup with her two fellow PhD colleagues and was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for young entrepreneurs. Until today, the startup has received Venture Capital from Silicon Valley based True Ventures, Germany’s largest VC GFC, and the Zurich climate tech fund übermorgen. The startup has won numerous awards such as the SAP Innovation Awards 2022 and Liliane was a speaker at TEDxZurich in 2022. Among others, the following media has covered Liliane, her two co-founders and the climate tech startup Exnaton: Handelsblatt, NZZ, SRF, Handelszeitung, VSE, Blick, Energate and PV Magazine. About Exnaton: exnaton is a multi-award-winning spin-off company from ETH Zurich, founded by three former PhD students and colleagues with a shared vision for a sustainable energy future. Building on their research in the software and energy sectors, they developed an AI-powered white-label billing platform designed to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. Today, exnaton supports more than 50 utilities across five countries. The platform enables utilities to launch and scale Distributed Energy Resources (DER) offerings by transforming complex energy data into clear customer invoices and delivering actionable insights. Exnaton powers use cases such as energy sharing, dynamic tariffs, EV smart charging, and more – empowering utilities and their customers to actively participate in the energy transition.Social links:  Liliane Ableitner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lilianeableitner/ Exnaton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exnaton/ Exnaton website: https://www.exnaton.ai/en About Hyperion Search:At Hyperion Search, we specialize in building world-class teams for the cleantech and energy transition sectors. We focus on leadership roles but also recruit strategically critical individual contributors who drive business growth. Whether you’re a founder scaling a startup, a board member guiding a scaleup, a VC/PE investor, or a corporation committed to energy and mobility transitions, we find the talent that will deliver impactful, sustainable results.Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperion-search-ltd Website: www.hyperionsearch.com Follow us online, write a review (please) or subscribeI'm very keen to hear feedback on the podcast and my guests, and to hear your suggestions for future guests or topics. Contact via the website, or Twitter. If you do enjoy the podcast, please write a review on iTunes, or your usual podcast platform, and tell your cleantech friends about us. That would be much appreciated.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-hunt-cleantech/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidhuntcleantech/Also follow our podcast handles to stay up to date. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-cleantech-podcast/ Instagram: Leaders in Cleantech Podcast (@leadersincleantech.podcast) | Instagram Website: https://leadersincleantech.com/